News reports and Maps For Canadians are
celebrating the federal government's decision to cancel the decision to
cancel printing paper
topographical maps. Wonders will never cease.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn
made the decision on October 11. Apparently the order to end printing was
made under the previous Liberal government and Lunn was made aware of the
decision and its implications as a result of public protests.

Writers of the upcoming parks-and-recreation
plan will meet with concerned users in Toronto and Ottawa next month.

The Ministry of Natural Resources is finalizing
an integrated management plan (TIP) for parks, conservation reserves and
Crown-land recreation in the Temagami land-use-plan district.

The plan will cover everything from ATVs in
parks and on portages, to camping fees on Crown land, to the intended
logging-road crossing of the Pinetorch Conservation Reserve (at the end of
the Red Squirrel Road).

Nastawgan Network sees these issues as the tip
of the iceberg of the "fracturing of the Temagami backcountry and a
proliferation of incompatible land use activities."

The meeting is sponsored by Nastawgan Network,
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) and Earthroots